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Reimer, Route win 10K Run for the River

Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Runners who made the 10-mile loop take off Saturday May 9, 2013 during the annual Run for the River sponsored by the Kenai Watershed Forum as part of the Kenai River Festival in Soldotna, Alaska.

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Adam Reimer from Soldotna and Cori Route from Cooper Landing scored victories in the Run for the River 10-mile race Saturday morning in downtown Soldotna. The event was a part of this weekend’s Kenai River Festival.

Results were not available when the Clarion went to press, but Reimer held off Mark Blanning to win the men’s race in approximately 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds, while Route ran mostly unopposed in the women’s race.

“There was a high school kid out there that was pretty speedy, and for the first half he was dominating things,” Reimer said. “On the way back we both caught him.”

Kenai Central student Nate Mole was the runner that Reimer to which Reimer was referring, but Mole ended up finishing third, behind both Reimer and Blanning.

“I had an ambition of trying to win it in under an hour, but on the way back there was a headwind, and that kind of ruined it,” Reimer said.

Blanning finished second in the 10-miler for a second straight year.

Reimer mentioned that the race was in preparation for another event he is helping to organize, which will be a 10K race on the Tsalteshi Trails on Aug. 16. Reimer is hoping runners use the race to prep for the Lost Lake Run on Aug. 24 in Seward.

Route, the women’s winner in the 5K event a year ago, decided that a change was needed this year and upgraded to the women’s 10-mile race. Even with the switch, she wasn’t expecting to win.

“I had a good pace going, but tried to pick it up later on,” Route said.

Route, 34, said she is currently being sponsored by the company she works for — Alaska Rivers Company, a guided fishing and rafting tour — which helps her compete in local races.

Jordan Theisen from Kenai won the five-kilometer race on Saturday, and Pam Winders from Wasilla crossed the line as the fastest female.

Theisen’s time, which was in the 19-minute range, left the Kenai Central student athlete questioning the actual length of the course, since Theisen is typically an elite 17-minute 5K runner.

“I like it, it’s really flat, but I think it’s long,” Theisen said. “I felt like I was going pretty fast. I thought my time was going to be better.

Winders, 31, was wearing a specialized watch for measuring the length of the course and her watch displayed a length of 3.37 miles, about a quarter-mile longer than the 3.1 miles that make up five kilometers.

“It’s the same course we do every year,” Winders said. “There was one girl I beat in the last mile, and she beat me last year. I learned from her last year, because she would go slow, fast, slow and fast again, and this year I stayed with her when she picked it up and held a steady pace, and when she faded I went ahead.”

Winders is planning to run the Tri-The-Kenai today, and used Saturday as a warmup event.

“I did the 10-miler last year here, and I nearly died during the triathlon,” she said.

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